1) What exactly is Tekstum?

Tekstum is an engine that identifies, measures and analyses the feelings of readers. Our algorithm uses artificial intelligence and big data to achieve better editorial and marketing decisions.

In short: Our system synthesizes the overwhelming amount of qualitative information available to optimize the success ratio of publishers.

2) What problem does it solve?

Every year the number of new book titles in the market grows exponentially, generating large amounts of data at fast rates. Yet, much of the analysis currently being conducted is quantitative (i.e. the total number of “likes” of a book) rather than qualitative (i.e. why a person “likes” or “dislikes” that book).

The Tekstum engine uses natural language processing techniques to find patterns in qualitative data comprised of the opinions and feelings of actual readers in order to draw conclusions regarding the sentiment and emotions of how they experience a book.

3) Who is your target market?

Our current targets are publishers and retailers. Yet, the main idea behind Tekstum technology is that it is flexible; so it can also be adapted for any user, including libraries and curious readers.

4) What results do you hope to see over the next few years?

One exciting feature that we are currently developing is a novel recommendation system based on the emotions and sentiment that real readers are expressing. Over the next few years, our goal is to become the reference for emotion and sentiment-based book recommendation systems, as well as to continue expanding our engine to encompass more and more languages.

5) What will be next for Tekstum?

Currently, we are completing the testing phase of our engine for the English language, which we are looking forward to release this summer. It will open doors to new and exciting markets for us. After the release of the English version, we also plan to expand in order to cover more languages; French and German are the next two on deck. So follow us on twitter to keep an eye out for updates regarding their development.

Lauren Romeo is pioneering the Natural Language Processing research and development of the Tekstum engine. A PhD in Computational Linguistics, she has been getting her hands dirty with textual data and algorithms for years so that publishers can sleep easier at night. Learn even more about her on LinkedIn.